tony award

Is painting like acting? According to Christopher Knight there is a strong demand for celebrity art. The idea of modern art lacking aesthetic content and that content being contrived to create a phantom depth does have a connection with acting. The recent death of Tony Curtis who was an accomplished artist is an interesting study in the interplay of the two:

Mathis:It is true, I do think the non-aesthetic content of art should be artless, in the sense that I believe that it is required to a genuine expression of the artist’s feeling about the subject. Obviously, the art may be “artful” in other ways—technically, formally, etc. But painting is not acting. It is not the assumption of emotions for an effect. And even if you think that it is, I may make the argument that acting is only successful when the actor feels the emotions he is “faking.” Good acting is not the invention of emotions; it is the calling up of real emotions in manufactured settings. Read More:http://www.mileswmathis.com/op8.html

There’s little doubt that the glitz and glamour of the movie world has left its mark on his visual images. Many of his Van Gogh-ish still life images seem larger than life and encompass great visual concepts within the confines of the canvas making a powerful statement of the artist’s skill. Painted with great spontaneity, they reflect the underlying discipline that is the source of his confidence in his true artistic gift.Read More:http://www.islandconnections.com/edit/curtis.htma

The following picture does convey Curtis’s artistic sensibility. The  dog symbolizes a sexual bond between the figures, and also, hopefully,  their fidelity to one another. The photograph appears set up as a reflection of   Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Marriage Portrait.

 

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vid Ng:Some people may think it strange to place Curtis’ art dabblings on the same level as his film work in “Some Like It Hot” and “The Defiant Ones.” But then again, Curtis wasn’t strictly a dabbler. The actor devoted decades to his love of art and continued to paint long after the plum movie roles stopped coming his way.

He clearly took his art his seriously. In a 1989 interview with The Times on the occasion of his artwork being shown at the Beverly Hilton, Curtis explained that “when I start painting, I have no idea what I’m going to do. The first color I use — that tells me where the painting is going. It paints itself, and the painting tells me when it’s finished. It’s almost as if it does it for me.”

It often looks silly for amateur artists to list grand masters as their influences, but that didn’t stop Curtis. He told The Times that he had been most inspired by Picasso, Matisse and Balthus. Read More:http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/09/tony-curtis-celebrity-art-hobbyist.html